Bivins Begins First Day As State Senator

March 11th, 2008 at 01:37pm Andrea Zimmermann

Former Lee County Sheriff Tim Bivins on Tuesday began his first day in his new job — as the state senator from the 45th district.

The 55-year-old Dixon resident was sworn in Friday by a Lee County judge to replace retiring Sen. Todd Sieben, R-Geneseo.

Although Bivins was appointed to the seat, he still must be elected during November’s general election. Marty Mulcahey, who works for the Illinois Secretary of State and is the son of former Rep. Dick Mulcahey, is Bivins’ Democratic opponent.

In February, Bivins won the Republican primary for Sieben’s district, which includes the western part of Winnebago County and all of Stephenson County. Sieben has said he hopes his retirement will give Bivins an advantage over Mulcahey during the general election.

Bivins, who was the Lee County sheriff from 1986 to 2006, said one of his legislative initiatives will be to watch the state budget closely.

“We can’t borrow ourselves out of debt,” he said.

In the short term, Bivins’ largest task will be learning how Springfield works and of course, learning names.

“(I’ve forgotten) all of them, including my own,” he said.

Entry Filed under: Tim Bivins, Marty Mulcahey, Todd Sieben, Senate Republicans, Illinois politics